U.S. Sen. John McCain demanded Thursday that Congress approve a
bill to swap thousands of acres of federal land and clear the way for a
copper mine that could result in thousands of jobs in southeast Arizona.

“It’s time for Congress to put an end to these delays. The people in
my state are hurting,” said McCain, who was testifying alongside fellowRepublican Sen. Jon Kyl. “This mine’s an economic opportunity that
shouldn’t be squandered.”

But opponents said the proposed Resolution Copper Co. mine at Oak Flat would destroy sacred tribal land, and that federal agencies need more time to analyze the project.

“No money can replace the loss of sacred sites,” said Shan Lewis, president of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona.

They were talking about the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2011, a bill
that would give the federal government more than 5,300 acres of
Resolution Copper land in exchange for 2,400 acres of copper–rich
government land near Superior.

The House has already approved the swap. But federal agencies said
more environmental impact studies need to be conducted before the
government gives away the land.

McCain said the government land contains the world’s third–largest
body of copper ore. Resolution wants to develop a mine there that it
said could have an ultimate economic impact of billions to the state in
the coming decades.

“We can get copper from this mine, Mr. Chairman, or import it from
some place overseas,” McCain told the Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources. “There will be a continued demand for copper in our
economy.”

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McCain told the committee that the proposed mine would create 3,700
direct and indirect jobs and could account for a quarter of the
country’s copper supply.

He criticized tribal leaders who oppose the bill, saying it is “not
fair and it’s not right” that they refuse to even sit down and hear the
proposal from the copper company.

“I respect tribal sovereignty,” he said. “I don’t respect people who
refuse to sit down and at least listen to something that could help the
tribe itself enormously economically.”

But Lewis of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona said it’s not
possible for the tribes to sit down and talk with Resolution Copper
about a bill that does not call for environmental studies prior to a
land swap.

“Without looking into the environmental issue that may come with this
type of project … it’s hard to sit down and talk about what impacts
this mining company brings,” Lewis said.

Government officials echoed those concerns. Environmental analysis
“in advance of the exchange would create an opportunity for meaningful
tribal consultation where tribal concerns and interests would be
identified and addressed and possibly mitigated,” said Mary Wagner,
associate chief of the U.S. Forest Service, in her testimony.

Officials at the hearing said they were only asking that the
Resolution project get the same level of review that any other similar
project get.

But Kyl implored the committee to move the bill forward and not put
the project in the hands of bureaucrats who would delay it by years.

“We have always been the ultimate arbiter of what we believe is in
the public’s interest and we should retain our authority to do that,”
Kyl said. “We have the authority. Why can’t we make this determination?”

Resolution Copper Vice President Jon Cherry said the company cannot
risk putting the project’s fate in the hands of federal agencies, as it
could be delayed for years. He pointed to the nearby Asarco Mine that he
said has taken 14 years to go through the bureaucratic route for a land
exchange.

3 comments on this story

These two mines (and several others in the Patagonia area) and the Keystone project are clear examples of just how far the US has fallen from being a “superpower.”
It used to be that US owned corporations went to third world countries to leverage their natural resources, low cost labor, and corrupt governments to extract bounty in the US economy interest.
The worm is subtly turning. Our Five Eye brethren are now exploiting us in that same way. We find ourselves once again subject to colonialism by corporation. Isn’t that why we fought the first revolution?

As with the Rosemont mine, I’d question whether this would really help Arizona and the USA. The wikipedia entry for Resolution Copper indicates it is a venture owned by Rio Tinto, a UK-based company, and BHP, an Australia-based company.

Yes!

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